#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Shut Down DC, CBC Vigil, Smollett Trial; Houston's 1st Black-owned grocery store; Atl's New Mayor

Episode Date: December 8, 2021

12.07.2021 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Shut Down DC, CBC Vigil, Smollett Trial; Houston's 1st Black-owned grocery store; Atl's New MayorThey shut down D.C. We'll show you how and why protestors blocked traffic around the nation's capital.In about 45-minutes, members of the Congressional Black Caucus will be on the capitol steps holding a vigil - urging the Senate to pass much-needed legislation.The 61st mayor of Atlanta, Andre Dickens, will be here to tell us about his plans for the city.The man accused of killing music executive Clarence Avant's wife is charged with murder.A jury will soon decide the fate of Jussie Smollett. Closing arguments will begin tomorrow. We'll have a breakdown of what happened in court today.Plus, a commission analyzes the fundamental framework of the nation's highest court to determine whether changes should be made.And, in our Marketplace Segment, sponsored by Verizon, we'll talk to a man who had a thriving nightclub before Covid shut him down. Now, he's operating the first black-own grocery store in Houston. RolandMartinUnfiltered partners:Verizon | Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband, now available in 50+ cities, is the fastest 5G in the world.* That means that downloads that used to take minutes now take seconds. 👉🏾https://bit.ly/30j6z9INissan | Check out the ALL NEW 2022 Nissan Frontier! As Efficient As It Is Powerful! 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3FqR7bPAmazon | Get 2-hour grocery delivery, set up you Amazon Day deliveries, watch Amazon Originals with Prime Video and save up to 80% on meds with Amazon Prime 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3ArwxEh+ Don’t miss Epic Daily Deals that rival Black Friday blockbuster sales 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3iP9zkv👀 Manage your calendar, follow along with recipes, catch up on news and more with Alexa smart displays + Stream music, order a pizza, control your smart home and more with Alexa smart speakers 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3ked4liBuick | It's ALL about you! The 2022 Envision has more than enough style, power and technology to make every day an occasion. 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3iJ6ouPSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfilteredDownload the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com#RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. You know how some carriers give you so little for your old or busted phone you just end up living with it? I don't think so. Verizon lets you trade in your broken phone for a shiny new one. You break it, we upgrade it. You dunk it, doggy bone it. Slam it, wh break it, we upgrade it. You dunk it, doggy bone it. Slam it, wham it, strawberry jam it, we upgrade it. Get a 5G phone on us with select plans. Every customer, current, new, or business.

Because everyone deserves better. And with plans starting at just $35, better costs less than you think. It's Tuesday, December 7th, 2021. I'm Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeaver with Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. They shut down D.C. We'll show you how and why protesters block traffic around the nation's capital. In about 45 minutes, members of the Congressional Black Congresso be on the Capitol steps h the Senate to pass much n

the 61st mayor of Atlanta be here to tell us about city. The man accused of Clarence Avanti's wife is A jury will soon decide the fate of Jesse Smollett. Closing arguments will begin tomorrow. We'll have a breakdown of what happened in court today. Plus, a commission analyzes the fundamental framework of the nation's highest court

to determine whether charges should be made. And in our Marketplace segment, sponsored by Verizon, we'll talk to a man who had a thriving nightclub before COVID shut him down. Now he's operating the first black-owned grocery store in Houston. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the fine And when it breaks, he's right on time And it's rolling, best believe he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks

He's rolling, yeah With some go-go-royale Yeah, yeah It's rolling, Martin, yeah Yeah, yeah' with Rollin' now Yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Rollin' Martin

Now Martin Protesters across the nation's capital gathered in a collaborative effort to shut down D.C. Today, demonstrations took place across the district as demonstrators voiced their opinion on the matters pressing the nation. And of course, one of today's leading topics was to urge congressional leaders to pass President Biden's 1.75 trillion dollar Build Back Better bill. The clock is ticking on the bill and more pressure falls on Senate Majority Leader,

Chuck Schumer, to get the job done. The Congressional Black Caucus will be hosting a vigil for justice in just a little while. Led by Representative Joyce Beattie, the group calls for the Senate to pass the bills that have already made it through the House. In a statement, Beattie says, despite it being the holiday season, justice is not taking a break. We're streaming alarming examples of gun violence, police brutality, hate crimes, environmental justice, and unfortunately, so much more. While tragedies are commonplace, we've placed legislation that would transform our justice system, save lives, and change the narrative here in the House. It's now time for

the Senate to act. Make no mistake, this vigil is a clarion call to action. We've passed the bills, we've delivered for the American people. Now it's up to you. Will the Senate act and save lives or will they continue to choose inaction and obstruction? Will you stand by idly while lives continue to be lost or will you govern? Tomorrow, black women leaders and allies will host a Freedom Walk march beginning at 1230 p.m. They will meet at the National Council of Negro Women headquarters and walk to the U.S. Senate for a speak out. On our panel tonight is Mustafa Santiago Ali, former senior advisor to the Environmental Justice Division of the EPA, and Xavier Pope, host of Suit Up News and owner of the Pope Law Firm. Welcome, young men.

Wow, a lot going on, huh? Definitely. I have to say, with everything going on and with the Congressional Black Caucus holding this demonstration and citizens across the district saying it's time to move on and get some work done. Do you think that's going to be enough to change the Senate from inaction to action on those bills that we know are critically important, that's just languishing in their part of Congress to this day? What do you think, Santiago? I think it's always a good step. You know, we got to keep the focus on the injustices that

continue to happen. And we also got to keep a focus on what the Senate needs to do. And by letting them know that folks are still paying attention, that folks are still connected, that folks are still engaged, then it lets them know that we're not going away. We know what justice looks like, whether it's in housing, health care, jobs, voting, and a number of other issues. And they have the pieces of legislation in front of them to adjust the needs that exist inside of our country. The question is, do they have the will to actually get the job done?

So I think that the pressure that's being placed by folks actually showing up and showing out in some instances is critically needed. The other part of the equation is holding corporations accountable who continue to back many of these senators who refuse to move forward with what the majority of Americans are asking for. Absolutely. And so, Xavier, you know, as we've watched this play out now literally for months, it seems as if there is zero sense of urgency. We're not surprised by the Republicans. We expect them to be obstructionists. But it's so interesting to see how the Democratic caucus has been, in essence, held hostage by a couple of players who have decided that they're not going to push forth an agenda that not only

the president is looking to make sort of his clarion call for his administration, but the House has already passed and done their side of the coin in terms of what they need to do to make these changes permanent for Americans. You know, what do you think it will take to get the cinemas of the world and the likes to sort of finally come on board and move forward legislation that, frankly, is critically important for this nation? To be frank, the math is the math. You have two senators in Sinema and Manchin who are borderline Republicans in terms of how they are holding their position

because they are seeking to make sure that they are reelected in office in conservative districts. And so unless the tenor of the country changes in terms of how we see the politics of things that need to get done in Washington, then that calculus doesn't change much. Our needs and what the leaders should be responsible for and what's important to African Americans, we could be in the streets, we could march. It's very important to make sure that we are standing and making sure our voices are heard.

But if they land on deaf white ears, then it's impossible to change the situation without the calculus of our representation chain. Absolutely. So when I think of this, Mustafa, you know, and we think of a mansion, for example, we've talked about this before. He comes from one of the poorest states in the nation. Do you think that in some way, you know, I know he has his own way of thinking and he does his own thing. But I also have to wonder, is this also part of a messaging problem with the Democrats? This is an issue that we've talked about a lot, right? So, you know, oftentimes the Build Back

Better Act is referred to as the spending bill. I mean, not really great optics if you're going to call something the spending bill, instead of focusing on exactly what they are spending on, instead of being very specific about how this impacts the American people. And even I would argue this whole issue about build back better. What the heck does that mean? You know, if you were going to specifically talk about the fact that this means that you'll be able to keep your child tax credit, this means more money in your pocket. This means that we're going to have some universal pre-K. This means that your your your medicine bill is going to go down. If they were more specific, do you think it would be easier to move the mansions of the world? Because now he would be better able to justify what's

going on to his constituency that actually needs things like that. Without a doubt. I mean, it should have been labeled the investment bill, investments in your communities, investments in your families, and then helping people to understand what those investments actually look like. But, you know, we find ourselves in the moment that we did. We talked for a long time in trying to get folks to make investments in black media and brown media so that those who actually understand our communities could have those conversations across the airwaves about how change can and actually will happen, about how we can create our own businesses based upon these sets of resources that are out there.

But, you know, when folks decide to take a different direction, then you have a much more difficult time. Then you give space to Senator Manchin to be able to talk about all the negative aspects or the parts that he doesn't like, instead of having to be able to defend, taking away things that everyday folks actually need and would see value in if they knew that it existed in a format that actually resonated with them. I have a good idea about the things that folks in Appalachia care about and Michigan care about

because those are two places that I grew up with. And when you have folks having these conversations based upon what goes on in New York or California, that's not going to resonate there, along with a number of places across the country. So I hope this is a lesson learned. I hope that we get it passed. But if not, folks should better understand that if you make these investments in those trusted folks who can actually get the message out, you will then be able to achieve the goals that we're setting forward on. Absolutely. And, you know, Xavier, when I think about this, it may not be an issue of if this gets passed, it may be an issue of when this gets passed and in what form. And,

you know, I know that the push right now is to try to get it done before Christmas. It doesn't look like Manchin is at all necessarily interested in doing that, you know, if ever. What I think about, though, is the broader picture and what are the impacts on midterms, right? We saw what happened with the Virginia governor's race and all that happened. It's a number of reasons why I think it turned out the way it did, but it certainly didn't help that there was such inaction in Congress on those issues that one could argue that you could say, hey, we delivered for the American people. Are they sort of going down the same road with this in terms of, you know, is the issue with this lack of urgency

and actually passing legislation in time for people to actually see the benefits of it. Is that going to hurt the Democrats writ large, including Joe Manchin, and bite them in the butt when the Democrats lose power in the Senate? Because honestly, this is the most power he's going to have. When this becomes a Republican-majority Senate, you know, where it's no longer 50-50, his ability to be the kingmaker, so to speak, with regards to legislation will, poof, disappear. Look at it this way. The infrastructure bill that had bipartisan support, and even the Republicans that didn't support it, like Mitch McConnell, who didn't

show up at the signing of the bill, basically touting being responsible for bringing the different changes that were necessary in their communities, in their districts. The same way that the focus should be on what how it benefits those are in Republican districts. I think that's the same way to deposit the Build Back Better bill. And instead of focusing on Kristen Sinema and Joe Manchin, focus on the Republicans who know that certain provisions of this bill benefits their constituents and target them and say, look what happened with the infrastructure bill. These are the people who didn't vote for it that are now touting it. This is how it's benefited these communities. They're saying this is, they're taking responsibility for it. Why aren't you taking responsibility for other issues that are get wide stream mainstream support across the aisle? Put your attention on that and say, hey, we need to come together for

this. And this is how we're able to pass legislation that impacts all Americans. Sounds good. I'm hoping that somebody is listening in the Democratic Party because that sounds like a good strategy to me. Coming up, we'll talk to the new mayor of Atlanta, Andre Dickens. And later in our Marketplace segment sponsored by Verizon, Houston welcomes its first black-owned supermarket, District Market Green. The owner will tell us how the pandemic made him go

from entertainment business to feeding his community. But first, a quick break. This is Roland Martin, Unfiltered, on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back. ТРЕВОЕННАЯ МУЗЫКА Betty is saving big holiday shopping at Amazon. So now she's free to become Bear Hug Betty. Settle in, kids. You'll be there a while.

Ooh, where you going? Folks, Black Star Network is here. Hold no punches! A real revolutionary right now. Support this man. Black power. Support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roller.

Be Black. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scape. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home.

You dig? Alexa, play our favorite song again. Okay. I only have. Right here. Rolling. Rolling Martin. Right now. You are watching Rolling Martin. Unfiltered. I mean, could it be any other way? Really. It's Rolling Martin. 16-year-old Devon Simpson, who was last seen Wednesday, December 2nd, here in D.C.

Devon is 5 feet 9 inches, 140 pounds, with short black hair and dark brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a black jacket and dark colored pants. If you have any information on Devon Simpson, call the Metropolitan Police Department at 202-576-6768. Former Empire actor Jesse Smollett was back on the stand today before the defense rested their case in the Chicago trial. Defense attorneys rested their case shortly after Smollett finished the second day of testimony, telling the jury the brothers tried to extort nearly $2 million from him. Prosecutors said they had no rebuttal witnesses to call, and Judge James Lynn scheduled closing arguments for tomorrow morning.

Yesterday, the actor told jurors the claims he staged an anti-gay racist attack on himself are 100 percent false. Smollett faces six counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly making false reports to police that he was the victim of a hate crime. If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison. Charges are filed against a 29-year-old man in last week's fatal shooting of Jacqueline Avant, the wife of music executive Clarence. Ariel Maynor is charged with one count of murder, attempted murder, and being a felon with a firearm. He also faces two counts of residential burglary with a person present and an allegation of using an assault long barrel pistol during the crimes. Police took Maynard into custody after he allegedly broke into a home seven miles away from where Avant was murdered. Clarence and Jacqueline were married for 52 years and had two children.

More lawsuits have been filed to hold rapper Travis Scott liable for the deadly Astroworld concert incident. 1,547 concertgoers who were allegedly hurt during a November 5th performance left 10 dead and hundreds injured and are now suing the artist. This brings the total number of plaintiffs to nearly 2,800. The legal process has already begun for Scott. Recently, the artist asked a judge to throw out over 300 lawsuits. So we will be right back in just a moment. ДИНАМИЧНАЯ МУЗЫКА Субтитры добавил DimaTorzok Thank you. Alexa, play our favorite song again. Okay. I only have eyes again okay

once upon a time they did the princess with really long hair who's waiting for print to come save her really he has time for that? She ordered herself a ladder with Prime one day delivery. And she was out of there. Now, her hairdressing empire is killing it. And the prince? Well, who cares? Prime changes everything. Hey, I'm Cupid. The maker of the Cupid Shuffle and the Wham Dance. What's going on? This is Tobias Trevelyan.

And if you're ready, you are listening to and you are watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Atlanta has a brand new mayor. Andre Dixon will be the 61st mayor of Atlanta after winning last week's runoff over council president Felicia Moore, 64% to 36%. He joins us now to tell us his plans for the city of Atlanta. Thank you, Mayor Dickens, for joining us tonight. Congratulations. Hi there, Mayor. Can you hear us? Yes, I can hear you. Awesome. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Thank you. Wow. That must have been a heck of a race.

But now it's behind you. Now it's about the future of Atlanta. So tell us, let us in on a little secret. What is at the top of your agenda for your wonderful city? Well, the first thing is to continue to thank the citizens of Atlanta that voted for me. A native Atlanta that came from behind from 5% all the way to be at 64% on election day. So thanking them, visiting them, going to as many meetings as I can, talking to all the community. Our city hall is closed right now and it's been closed since COVID. I'm going to reopen it safely so that the citizens can come in and get work done and be able to take care of the necessary things that, need to do. And then making sure that we keep our city together.

There's a fraction of our city that's interested in doing some strange things right now in terms of Buckhead. So I want to make sure that we successfully make sure that Buckhead is safe, but also that they are heard and have their city services taken care of. I'm going to build a bunch of affordable housing as well as, you know, pave our roads, do our infrastructure for our transit and our sewer. So I got a lot on my plate and working with the youth is of utmost importance in getting them prepared for the quality of life that they're going to want in the future by having them trained in after school programs and STEM and technology like I've been doing my adult career. That sounds like quite an agenda. When you went, as you mentioned, from 5 percent to 65 percent, you know, tell us, what do you think that the citizens saw in you to make them trust you in your city's future? Yeah, you know, my message began to resonate once, you know, we got

into debates and on the forums and a lot of meet and greets and just knocking on doors, going door to door, you know, telling the story that we can't be a tale of two cities with all this prosperity, but multi-generational poverty on the other side of the tracks. So talking to them about the ability to train people to get great jobs, that Atlanta continues to grow, but too many of our people are untapped talent. They're just waiting for us to tap into it, train them and prepare them, and make sure that we spread this economic boom around, that if you don't make sure that people have an opportunity and access and equality, they will show up in your system in other ways. And so it's best for us to make sure that we're

inclusive and that everybody that's coming here makes sure that they make way for the people that are already here. And that really resonated with a lot of Atlantans, as well as our senior citizens who constantly are approached on the right side of them by somebody that's building a mini mansion and somebody on the left side of them that's renovating a older home and making it twice as big. And the seniors, you know, property value goes up, but they're not looking to transact on that. So I want to freeze their taxes so that they don't continue to see escalations, even though their homes are already paid for. So we're trying to make sure we preserve our culture, our seniors.

And, you know, I was just, you know, resonating with people about being honest. I got a whole lot of energy and I've been able to, you know, change the tides in my favor. That's wonderful. Now, when I think about what a lot of cities all around this nation is facing right now, that really is a hard problem to solve, is there has been an increase in crime rates following this sort of new post. Not even we're still working through covid reality, but the world is opening up, shall we say. And obviously, I think a lot of that could be expected because we've been all kind of shut down for a while and people are coming out. So maybe things are getting back to normal. But in some situations, it's actually escalating above normal. You know, what's going on in Atlanta with regards to that issue? And what are your plans to make things safer for Atlanta citizens, but at the same time, ensure that police officers

respect everyone's rights? Yeah, you're absolutely right. Atlanta is no different than other cities in the nation. Since May 2020, we've seen a crime escalation. And, you know, a lot of the crime that we're seeing is a crime that we hadn't seen in this way in maybe 20 years. And, you know, I think that what we're seeing is, you know, from isolation and depression and things that came from COVID, but also a sense of lawlessness that swept some individuals that said, you know, we're going to do whatever we want to do. Arrest me. And I don't care because the jails are already, you know, courts are not operating as well because they're open. I mean, they're not open. And so what you end up with is, you know, people won't get their cases adjudicated for months, if not years. And so they get right out.

They get arrested for stealing a car, and they're right back on the street waiting trial. And trial might not happen for 12 to 18 months. And I've had individuals commit the same crime three times. A lady last week called me and said, my son has been arrested three times for stealing cars. I'm afraid he's going to get shot by one of these car owners. Please lock him up and keep him there so he learns a lesson. And so I was like, wow, I just got elected mayor. She sees me on TV and she's like, you got to make sure you lock my son up and keep him. But what I want is a balanced approach to safety and justice.

We got to make sure that we have the amount of officers that we need, but they have to be trained in the 21st century policing where we de-escalate issues, where we have conflict resolution, where we use non-emergency police, where we use not police to resolve non-emergencies like homelessness and mental challenge people and public drunkenness. We don't need a badge and a gun and a taser to solve those issues. We need specialists, people that can get those folks the help that they need. Behavioral health needs people that's trained in that, not necessarily our officers, because when an officer is spending one hour trying to get somebody from in front of a store or a restaurant from acting sporadic, well, that

officer is not driving around your neighborhood making sure that somebody's not breaking in your house or that some shootout is not about to happen at a restaurant or club. So I'd much rather we dedicate those resources to those specialists that can help these individuals that's experiencing those issues like mental health and et cetera, and getting the officers out of their cars, walking to be going to meet the gas station owners, restaurants, bars, and shopping centers. And the last thing I'll say is that youth crime is 60% of the crime in Atlanta, youth-related crime. So individuals under 25 years old are committing 60% of the crime. So when we get youth crime down, we get overall crime down. And it's

important that we embrace our youth and make sure that they have a pathway to prosperity out of poverty and out of, you know, issues that they don't see their life track going the right way. Wow. That last statistic really blew my mind. Sixty percent of crime is committed by youth in your city. What do you think is the answer to that? Is it more programs? Is it jobs focused on youth? I mean, what is the answer that will make sure that that young population, quite frankly, don't throw their lives away? Because at some point it may be delayed in terms of getting to court, but at some point you're going to have to pay the piper. Right. The way to do this is we

have to, you know, really wrap our arms around the youth. This is going to require all of the nonprofits, the clergy, the business community, and our school system for all of us to work together to make sure every single team has somewhere to be after the bell rings. School does one thing, but after the bell rings, we got to make sure they're in extracurricular activities like sports, arts, STEM, mentoring, entrepreneurship. As long as they're involved in something, they're not going to be involved in crime. And then we have to make sure that they are employed. That means businesses hiring them, apprenticeships, internships. And I have a program that we're going

to really be expanding where we train kids in technology. So they're ready. This is what I do for a career. I'm a chief development officer for a technology company. That's been my career for a while until now as mayor. But we still get used to that title, huh? Still get used to that title. Got to get used to it. Oh, that's powerful. I love it. But, you know, technology is the future, so I think it's a great synergy, your skill set there and what you're bringing to this city. And specifically, I think it's something that would interest young people.

Obviously, they seem to be more proficient in technology than the rest of us. One other question I want to ask you before we go to break, and that is the economy. Now, you know, if I'm looking at the overall, the latest job statistics, actually was good news, in my opinion, for the black population. We saw our unemployment rate goes down a full point from the previous month. If we looked at this time last year, we were, you know, 10 percent unemployment as compared to like 6 percent right now. So that's a huge drop. You know, what's that situation looking like in Atlanta right now in terms of employment possibilities and how is that looking for your citizens?

Yeah, you know, the economy is doing quite well right now in Atlanta and, you know, Atlanta has a really large African-American population. So, you know, our statistics are typically, you know, if the economy is going well, you know, it's also going well for African-Americans. But it's still a segment of that population that is not going as well. You know, there's still individuals that, you know, our minimum wage in Georgia is only five dollars and 1515 an hour. The state of Georgia is, you know, and the state prevents all municipalities from setting their own minimum wage. So in the city, for city employees, I actually, four years ago, moved our minimum wage up to $15 an hour minimum wage from $10 for all 9,000 employees of the city. But, you know, we want to move that up even higher. And so that attracts more people to come to work saying, okay,

I can get a good job here working for the city and I can be, you know, compensated enough to, you know, afford an apartment. Whereas on the street working at McDonald's or some other, you know, restaurant, you're not necessarily going to get $15 an hour because the minimum wage in Georgia is so low. So helping spur this economy is at the top end, a lot of employment. And on the bottom end, it's a lot of people that may be employed, but they have to have two jobs to be able to make it. They have to put together two jobs to be able to afford health care, daycare, transportation, and, you know, of course, paying for their food and monthly expenses. So

I'm looking to have economic ladders to be able to have people grow in income because we have affordable housing needs because the housing is necessary. But the affordable part is about income in Georgia and in Atlanta. Our incomes just aren't high enough. And we have to give people skills to be able to get higher income so that even though we have a pretty good unemployment rate, that's not that high. We still have people working jobs that don't pay enough. And I'll give you an example. we still have people working jobs that don't pay enough. I hear you. And I'll give you an example. I met people at the airport that are still working to pay last month's rent.

Oh, my God. Yeah, and that's not enough income to be able to take care of their family needs because they work for a contractor, and they don't work for the city. They work for a contractor, and that contractor pays them $9 an hour. So they work $9 at the airport and then they work, you know, eight or $9 at another restaurant, which, which takes them to almost 60 to 80 hours a week. How do they look after their kids? So this is all I care about is overcoming these generational issues of poverty and income inequality. And we have to deal with that right away. And that's what I'm going to do as mayor. That sounds like a powerful agenda. If you'll hold on for just a

second, we will be right back with Atlanta's mayor-elect Andre Dickens after a quick break from our sponsors, Amazon and Buick. Roland Martin Unfiltered will be right back. You're watching The Black Star Network. Are the stars out tonight? Alexa, play our favorite song again. Okay. I only have eyes for you.

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Roland Martin Unfiltered. And while he's doing Unfiltered, I'm practicing the wobble. Welcome back to Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thank you, Mayor Elect Dickens, for sticking around with us. I now want to bring in our amazing panel, who I know have some great questions for you. So we're going to start with Mustafa. Mayor Dickens, it's good to see you.

I also have a bunch of members of my family from Kappa Alpha side, so they said to make sure I give you a shout-out. So we had to go there. Okay. Had to go there. You had to. Well, I'm representing for the AKAs with my pink today. All right.

Go ahead. And Roland is not on today, so, you know, his 858, he can't keep up with these Kappas that's on here. Well, I'm going to try and hold it down for Roland real quick. But I know you went to Mays High School. I got some roots in Atlanta. And I know with these infrastructure bills that we have that are coming, both the bipartisan, which passed, and hopefully the build back better. I'm curious.

Two parts to this. First part, how are you going to utilize those dollars? And the third part is how can folks help you? Because I understand the dynamics with the Georgia House and being able to make sure those dollars make it back to Atlanta. So what's the plan? Yeah, absolutely. I'm so excited to be in a position to take these dollars and put them to good use for the citizens of Atlanta. President Biden actually called me on Friday, and that was outstanding, you know, to talk to him. And that's what we talked about. He congratulated me on winning the election and said that Atlanta is a special place to him. He mentioned our current mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms,

and said the great relationship that they share. And he wanted to continue that. And I expressed that I wanted to continue that level of relationship as well. And also to have those infrastructure dollars come straight to Atlanta, Georgia, and we have shovel ready projects ready to go. I want to do a lot of things. We have this loop around the city that we've created called the Beltline. It needs to have transit around it. So I want to build light rail and then also have that light rail go out to Greenbrier Mall, which is going straight to the south side because that area of town has the longest commute to get to a rail station on the bus. People take 40 minutes to ride a bus to get to a rail station. So our lower income African-Americans are spending more productive time on a bus instead get to a rail station. So our lower income African-Americans are spending more productive time on a bus instead of being able to get on a train and get to the work, you know,

the central business district to go to work quicker. So I want to spend it on transit. I also want to do a lot of small projects that have major impact, like sidewalks around every single school and around every single senior center to make sure that we have safety precautions, speed humps and other things to calm down traffic so that people aren't getting hit because we have some crashes that occur. So making sure that we have mobility and safety across our city. But then our water and sewer infrastructure needs some support. Atlanta is very hilly, as you know. So with the hills comes the valleys. And in the valleys, you end up having a puddling effect when there's rain.

So making sure we have great sewers and we can prevent a lot of this stormwater runoff that we have that's really causing issues when we have severe weather events. So I have a set of plans and projects. And I've even told him that I see that parks as a part of infrastructure. Anything that COVID-19 taught us is that we all like to get some fresh air and go out in nature and that we have to have every Atlantan within a 10-minute walk of a world-class park and have maintained equipment there and all of that. So parks and art are all a part of our quality of life. So I have a great plan of action and we're ready to roll on a lot of fantastic initiatives to use that. I'm an engineer, so you know I love infrastructure projects and

things of that nature. Sounds wonderful. Xavier, do you have a question? Yes, I do. Congratulations, Mayor Alec Dickens, of making your mom proud of you, saying that you would be mayor of Atlanta when you were just a teenager, preteen, and coming through. First, I want to know what age did you project when you told your mama that you'd become mayor of Atlanta? The second thing is there's an Atlanta Journal of Constitution report that showed that 54 percent of the Buckhead residents approved basically seceding from the city. And I know that one of your priorities was about improving the relationship with the city and the state. How do you project when it's shown that the mayor, the Atlanta Braves moved to Cobb County? So the incentive of breaking away from the city, taking dollars out of the city,

how do you improve that relationship in a divisive era, essentially, and to be able to lead the city? And also, how do you empower Atlanta to be a black tech hub from coming from your background? And how do you increase that in the city as well? All right. So a couple of things there. So one is I did not predict a certain time frame for me becoming mayor. When I told my mom I wanted to be mayor, it was after meeting Mayor Ambassador Andrew Young. And I was enamored. And I said, hey, this is exactly how I want to be. I didn't know what a city council was, what a county commissioner. I didn't know anything. I just said, that man is the photo that's on the school picture.

You know, it's the president, the governor, and this guy. And this guy is black, and I just saw him in the grocery store. And, Mom, you made me go across aisles to go talk to him. I love that, and that's what I wanted to be. So, I mean, when we talk about youth and inspiration, I plan to be very visible and outspoken with youth about you can be anything you want to be based on a trajectory that I had, but I didn't predict that it would take me to be 47 years old to do it. But the second thing that you mentioned is talking about Buckhead. So yeah, there was a poll done that 54% of Buckhead residents said that they would vote to succeed. And part of that is due to crime. And Buckhead

has never in the past 20 years experienced this level of crime. And it's not even the same amount of crime as the rest of the city has experienced, but it's a crime that they haven't been used to. So they're crying out, saying, help us. This isn't how we want to live. And so we're saying to them, give the new mayor some runway to be able to bring down this crime wave and also give you the city services that you deserve. COVID did happen. COVID had a real effect on people's mentality, and COVID had a real effect on people's mentality and COVID had a real effect on service delivery. You can't put two workers on a truck or three

workers on a truck to fill a pothole. You can't put three workers on a truck to do the garbage pickup. You have to manage that six feet and all this stuff. And so it did reduce and, you know, inhibit some of the city services and put some delays. And then we had a worker shortage. And so what I'm trying to do is be able to get us back to full complement of employees and also making sure that we get to fully fulfill our service level agreement with the citizens, you know, four days to fill a pothole, the amount of time it takes to, you know, 99.9% garbage pickup on time, et cetera. All those things, we get back to that and we bring down the crime wave. Buckhead will see that this city is on the right direction and they'll want to stay in the city. But I'm not just waiting to win. I'm

mayor. I'm already talking to the, you know, the people that want to keep Buckhead in the city and also the state legislators that I have good relationships with and also some state legislators I've never met before on the Republican side. I'm talking to them and saying, hey, you want less government, right? Why would you want them to create a new government? And I believe that now that we've got the election out of the way and I won by a healthy amount, they know that I'm the unifier. I've lived in Buckhead before for 16 and a half years. And my daughter still goes to school in Buckhead and has an after school job that Buckhead, just like southwest Atlanta, just like Midtown and every other part of Atlanta, sees their mayor and understands that we're going to have a better city government function in just a little while. So, Mayor, I have a question about voting rights. I know that we've been very sort of microscopic in our specific focus on issues that Atlanta itself is facing. But when

I think about the impact of the citizens of Atlanta on the last presidential election and the Senate, you know, it's clear that that is a very strong space in the state in terms of really being able to swing that state. As you know, we have a historic governor election coming up there in the not too distant future. And when you think about the laws that your legislature passed recently to make it more difficult for people to vote, what do you think is going to happen? Do you think people are going to have difficulty being able to exercise their right in the next election? And what message would you send to the Senate, the U.S. Senate, in order to move, in order to address those issues through legislation?

I say to every American and every Atlantan, let your congressperson and your senator know that we must pass the John Lewis Voter Rights Act. We have to pass that. We have to make sure that we protect the right to vote across the United States, because Georgia's legislative members decided to pull some tactics that are essentially suppressing the vote, removing days that we can vote, reducing the number of drop-off ballot boxes that we have per county, per precinct, reducing the ability, I mean, making it very hard to do mail-in ballots. During COVID, that's what really made a big difference to get Warnock and Ossoff and Biden elected, was that we had a huge amount of people do absentee mail-in ballots because they didn't want to go to the polls.

They didn't want to leave their houses. But guess what these guys decided to do with Senate Bill 202 that they passed? They said that you have to mail in your I.D. and a request letter to get a mail-in ballot. Then they'll send you back the ballot. Then you mail in the ballot again and your copy of your driver's license once again. Now, if you're 78 years old, how many printers you got access to at your home? How many times do you have to go to this place or call your kids to say, make a copy of my driver's license and then send this in and send it back on time and then send it back in again and get it. It's cumbersome when all we really were supposed to have is you get an absentee ballot mailed to your house, you fill it out and drop it off in a drop-off box or mail it right away, just one time. These things in even my election, in even the mayor's election,

which is in a city that's majority democratic and very easily to comprehend how to go about the task of voting, 4,000 people requested a mail-in ballot and we only got 2,000 of them turned in. Because a lot of people said, I thought when I sent this in, that was all I had to do. Wow. by requiring extra steps to do something that should be very easy and free. So what we're doing is, Warnock, Ossoff, and our representatives in the Congress, I've been working with them and talking with them because it's necessary. And I don't want our citizens being on the wrong side of an election or not having their voice heard. Absolutely. Well, Mayor, I want to thank you so much for being so generous with your time this evening. I think the citizens of Atlanta are lucky to have such an amazing person as you to lead them through this very interesting time that they're in.

And we look forward to having you on the show many times in the future. All right. I look forward to it. Thank you so much to all the panelists and thank you for having me on and let's, uh, let's continue to talk. Absolutely. All right. See you soon. See you. Bye-bye. There's more to come on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Join us after this break. Alexa, play our favorite song again. Okay. I only have eyes for you. ТРЕВОЖНАЯ МУЗЫКА I'm going to go. Maureen is saving big holiday shopping at Amazon. So now she's free to become Maureen the Marrier. Food is her love language.

And she really loves her grandson. Like, really loves. Hi, I'm Eldie Barge. Hey, yo, peace world. What's going on? It's the love king of R&B, Raheem Devon. And you're watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Opening statements are set to begin tomorrow

in the Kim Porter murder trial. Yesterday, Judge Regina Chu set the ground rules for the jurors. This included explaining the difference between first and second degree manslaughter. Kim Porter faces first and second degree manslaughter charges for the death of Dante Wright. The jury of 14 people, including two alternates, will hear the case. Nine of the 12 jurors likely to deliberate are white.

One is black and two are Asian. The two alternatives are white. One is black and two are Asian. The two alternatives are white. So, Xavier, your thoughts about what we should expect with this particular trial that we have coming up. Do you think we should, you know, it's hard for me to actually expect justice at this point, but maybe we'll get it. Who knows? Maybe I'll be surprised. Well, I will point out that some of the pretrial stuff has been encouraging in terms of the Asian judge in this case and her not allowing the broadening of some of the jury instructions that the defense wanted to focus squarely on the actions that were taken and why the officer may have used and confused a gun or a taser. And so I think that that was really important to keep that out in terms of

focusing on the potential criminality and when it didn't exist, and also focusing on what officers could do if a suspect was fleeing when there was no indication of any criminality in the first place. And so I think those, keeping that out of the jury instructions to focus squarely and narrowly on the actions of the officer, making it clearer for the jury. Now, I think that's very important because we saw what the impact of a negative judge could be. We saw in the Kyle Rittenhouse case with the confusing amount of jury instruction that ultimately led to them finding some reasonable doubt there to be able to make sure that basic

domestic terrorists got off and a Proud Boys life was more important than the protests for black lives. So having diversity on the bench, we've seen it coming right there and how important it is to have the right judge on the bench as an impartial person in there and for a trial. It certainly is important, I agree with you, to have a judge that is impartial versus one that is obviously leaning in the direction of the defense in the case of the Rittenhouse case. But Mustafa, are you concerned at all about the makeup of the jury? This is something that, you know, for me, I'm thinking all the defense has to do is

sort of play the white fear card and perhaps they'll have an advantage there. Well, I'm always concerned when we have juries that don't look like America, that the percentages don't look like America, because it's so easy. The history has shown us that, you know, the scales have always been tilted against us. And it began with, you know, the framing of how we have our laws and stuff in place. But it was actually buffeted by these juries that often were not representative, where we didn't have a voice in the process. So I have concerns. But of course, you know, with the Ahmaud Arbery case and others, we can see that when a judge sets fair sets of actions and requirements, then it can help to balance out the scales of justice so that we can get down to,

you know, the facts of a case. I will note, though, that 74 percent of Hanneman County, where this case is being tried, is 74 percent of it's white. The jury makeup is about 75 percent white, which goes in line with some of the demographics of that particular county. So that's true that it's important that we do have diverse juries, but it does line up with whether diversity exists in that particular county. She gave us definite fear because it was a black man that was killed. And so it's important for us to recognize that as well. Absolutely. However, you know, I'm thinking about, you know, if it was my son, I would want more than one. I think it was just one black person. Right. On the jury. Is that correct?

Yeah. So the makeup of the jury is 14 people, two alternatives, and most of them are white. I mean, I would be concerned. I mean, we don't see we don't see justice play out at all. I mean, so in the but I'd say this is encouraging that we do have an impartial judge. And I think it's really important that we do point this out, because I don't think that people know enough about how judges impact the evidence that juries see so that they are not not so that they're the bias that they may have is tapped into because we saw it openly in the Cal Rittenhouse case how the defense was able to take advantage of the bias to play into the jury by framing the politics of really with no case at all really in defense even putting Rittenhouse on the stand so in this particular case it's really important how the evidence is viewed by the jury to be able to eliminate as much bias as possible so yes, we'd love to have more.

All black. We want that. But without that, making sure that we have an impartial arbiter of the case who is going to make sure that the case isn't slanted to play into and jury bias is extremely important. Absolutely. I mean, when you think about the Rittenhouse case, if you have a judge that won't allow the prosecutors to call victims victims, you know from the get-go that that's not going to go very well for the prosecution. But when I think about this particular case, even beyond sort of the makeup of the jury and, you know, the judge that does seem more fair in this case discernibly, you know, when I think about this officer, I'm just wondering what the hell? Just really. I mean, that's just my question. What the hell? I mean, you are supposed to be the person that is teaching and training other officers.

And we're supposed to believe that you can't tell the difference between a taser and a gun? I mean, that just literally makes no sense to me, just generally speaking. Is there something wrong with my logic here, Mustafa? No, there's not. You know, I've actually dealt with some of the training that goes on for some law enforcement folks, especially on the federal level. And, you know, there's a distinct difference between a taser and a pistol. Sometimes folks get in these situations where their adrenaline starts pumping and they're not paying attention. That does not take away from the fact that you've taken somebody's life. So I don't use that as a justification because every time you put on that badge, every time you put that gun in your holster, you know that there's

the possibility that you might end up taking someone's life. So we're going to let this case play out. It'll be interesting to see how it goes. But no, you're not off and wondering how this person could have made that mistake. And actually now there are tasers that have different colors and a number of different things to make sure that folks don't accidentally pull that. And you're also supposed to know which side of your body each thing is actually located. Exactly. The side of the body, the weight of the instrument.

I mean, there's just so many things that come into play that makes me wonder, you know, if you're going to have that much adrenaline where you don't know what you're doing to that extent, in my opinion, you don't need to be a police officer, period. Well, in Tennessee, a white teacher gets fired for teaching students about white privilege. Parents weren't too happy when Matthew Hahn's lessons centered on different perspectives on subjects involving race, class, and sexuality using essays and videos from black leaders. Sullivan Central High School is 95% white with less than 1% of black students.

The 16-year veteran teacher is appealing the decision. Oh my goodness. So here we go, Xavier. It looks like this is another one of those clutch my pearls, is this critical race theory movement, you know, moment in which, in essence, people are using this sort of big, broad rubric of critical race theory, which has nothing to do with us actually taught in schools as an excuse to keep teachers away from essentially telling the truth. What are your thoughts?

Race is taught to children and they're taught to teens. I think it's one of the most important things. We try to push back against the concept of critical race theory and it's not being taught on the elementary level, on the high school level, and it's taught on the collegiate law school level. I've taught critical race theory in law school. One of the most important things to note is

that doesn't mean that racism and the history of racism shouldn't be taught at all. And I think that's the important part. There is a backlash of people who I've called it white vapidity, is people live in a white bubble of complete innocence of wanting to look at themselves as good. And any reminder of how the condition of the country tells them that they are, quote unquote, not good. And it makes them have to are, quote, unquote, not good. And it makes them have to do something about the conditions that benefit them. And they don't want to do that. They love the way it is. This is great for them.

Don't change a thing. But I think that where racism is penetrated the most is when you have what's known as a race traitor who is of a white background. And you said 95 percent are in these predominantly white background and challenge the structure that exists. Now, one of the bigger issues that is faced by this gentleman is that he kept saying, I'm going to stop doing this. This really hurts him and harms him because the pressure that was faced upon him, he basically fell into it over and over and over and over again. And he looked, it became a provocateur. And so that may harm his chance as some sort of appeal, but I think that he should have stood up right in the first sense and said, I'm, this is what we're going to do. And this is how we're going to proceed. But that's, that's him on the, the, the, the appeal process,

but he did the right thing in terms of presenting what he presented, but how he did it along the way may harm his chances of actually getting an appeal. But this is the okey-doke. We already know. Absolutely. And I think you hit the head on the nail when you said that really what we're seeing here is this concerted effort to, in essence, we should not speak to reality in terms of history and in terms of contemporary reality as it relates to white privilege and its impact on people who are not white. And quite frankly, its impact on white people is as if not only do we not want to talk about just how things happen in the in the reality around race in this nation, it's that we want to continue, we want to operate under this illusion that every advantage that white people receive writ large is

deserved, right? That there's some level, it sort of plays into this white superiority mythology. When you pull back the covers and you show the reality that there are built-in advantages in the system that help you get what you want, right? That's what they don't want to talk about. Is that really what's happening here in a case like this, Mustafa? I think a large percentage of it is. I mean, it's almost like when people talk about the history of Europe and they only want to talk about, you know, kings and queens and all this other kind of stuff and not the reality of, you know, the disparate sort of living situations that the majority of folks were going through. You know, in our country, we never want to tell the truth. You know, we have this mythology that exists about our country and it actually weakens

us because it doesn't show, you know, how we've fallen down, where we've made mistakes and how we're supposedly moving forward in a better direction. You know, here's the way I break it down for folks when we talk about these issues. It's almost like in families when there's child abuse or where there's sexual abuse and everybody wants to be quiet and pretend that it didn't happen and that it'll just go away. And that's how folks also deal with race in this country. They don't want to talk about everything that they did with the genocide around indigenous brothers and sisters.

They don't want to talk about enslaving of African people and getting free labor and making trillions of dollars off of that, which is really the bedrock that our country was built on. We just need to tell the truth, tell the truth, and then do the steps that are necessary to heal our country and to also make sure that there are reparations or other sorts of actions that address the people who this country has built on, on top of. Well, you know, I think-

Mustafa, I do believe though that the truth is actually being told we just had the uh mayor elect dickens on the show talking about buckhead they're openly saying we want to leave atlanta because there's a black man as mayor and the politics that he represents doesn't represent who we are and that is in the open then there is there is no hiding that there is no trying to keep that under wraps. It's just how it's framed to the public in terms of who perceives that to be right and who perceives that to be wrong. It's as simple as that. Absolutely. But when we talk about the classroom, you know, I think what's happening here is we don't want to talk about the truth about history. And I think a

lot of it has to do with the fact that, number one, you have when you are truthful about what really happened in this nation's history, that any person of any moral conscience would feel a need to take some corrective action, which is what they are trying to avoid. You just mentioned, for example, reparations. Lord, God forbid. You want to see some clutching pearls? You're going to see it then. OK, when you open up that conversation. And then the next part of this coin is, honestly, I have to go back to this issue of there is this desire to avoid the fact of the built in advantages. Yes, there are wealth disparities that tremendously advantage the white community. Why there's so much wealth as compared, for know, advantage the white community, why there's so much wealth as compared, for example, to black wealth. And, but then again, you don't want to talk about how

you got all that wealth. You don't want to talk about the centuries of free labor that allow for that to accumulate. You don't want to talk about all of the sort of discriminatory policies that were put in place that built the suburbs, that allowed your parents to be able to buy homes for little or nothing that appreciated in value. Those were unfair advantages. I could go on and on and give a boatload of unfair advantages. And what's really interesting is those unfair advantages, that predisposition for wanting to tilt the system continues to this day. That's exactly what's happening with these voting rights laws that are happening all over the country. They want to build in unfair advantages that will lead to, in essence, an apartheid state that gives white people more voting power than everyone else in this country.

Isn't it that white people are just addicted to not playing fair and they don't want that truth to be told in schools? When you go to the club, everybody want to be a VIP, right? And I think that if you're a VIP, you don't want to go down and dance with everybody in the middle of the floor. And I think that that's the narrative that exists in our society right now is, hey, I didn't have anything to do with me getting here, but I'm here now and I'm going to protect where I am. And so we frame this a little bit differently, and this is a national security issue. When our, our neighbors across the world see that America doesn't honor its citizens, then it makes us less like a nation to look up to.

It makes us more vulnerable to our, to those who want to harm us. Yeah, but they don't care. I don't think they care as long as, as long as they get an advantage. Listen, I've seen studies that suggest that when white folk believe, when that, writ large, obviously this doesn't account for everybody, but writ large, if you look at survey data, when white people believe that people of color will be advantaged by democracy, guess what? Their support of democracy declines. This is why I'm not shocked when we're looking at what's happened in terms of the very sort of calculated tilt toward autocracy that's happening in this nation. It doesn't surprise me because they know that their numeric advantage is disappearing and therefore they want to tilt the system to give undeserved power to their cohort so they can continue to be in charge with voting rights,

with stacking the courts, with everything that's going to allow a white minority to have oversized power and no longer a democratic system. I mean, what are your thoughts about that, Mustafa? Well, you already shared with folks it is about the apartheid-esque system that folks are trying to put in place. This is about power and privilege. And this is about trying to get their arms around as much of it as possible as the browning of America happens. That's why we see all of these actions that are going on in the state level, you know, of trying to limit people's ability to be able to vote, of the redistricting that's going on, all these different dynamics, because all of it is tied into power and resources and thinking critically about not what's happening in this moment or next year. This is about 5, 10, 15,

20 years of making sure that you are putting in place structures so that your voices are the most dominant and have the most influence. So for me, I'm very clear. It's about power and privilege. Boom. I completely agree. Well, there's more to come on Roland Martin Unfiltered. The Department of Justice is investigating a New York State Police Department's practices against the nonviolent black offenders. Plus, could we see some changes to the US Supreme Court? I sure hope so. We'll tell what Biden's US Supreme Court Commission

is recommending. And later, the pandemic changed one man's Texas business. Now he owns Houston's first black-owned grocery store. He'll tell us about that process in a moment. But first, a quick break. Stay with us. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. See you in a moment, but first, a quick break. Stay with us, you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network.

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Yo, it's your man Dion Cole from Black-ish and you're watching... Roland Martin, unfiltered. Stay woke. A commission set up by President Biden to explore changes to the makeup of the Supreme Court has unanimously voted to finalize their report after a seven-month process. The commission's draft version includes arguments for term limits and the total number of justices. A seat on the Supreme Court is currently a lifetime appointment. The report comes as polls show public approval for the Supreme Court has dropped in recent months. Xavier, what do you think about this? You know, we're looking at changing the whole way in which we sort of allow the Supreme Court to function in terms of terms and all of that good stuff. Do you think that the commission's report is enough to suggest or should we go even more aggressive? Listen, as long as we center, we live in a center, not a center-right country, we live in a center-bigot country.

As long as we continue to center bigots in terms of our politics and our country, things won't change. We won't get any more Supreme Court justices. We won't reshape how justice looks in this country. Think about this. We had a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education. That wouldn't happen now. The fact that that wouldn't happen now is profoundly ridiculous in where we are and and what we're moving as a country so i think that's extremely important we have women's women's reproductive rights at jeopardy right now of voting rights are in are are now being dismantled we're living in a country that's going back backwards in term of the rights

because what we talked about in the last segment of centering of bigots in this country. So until we make this country ashamed of where it's going and it actually having an impact of people being platform, being platform, less money being made, as long as people can continue to grift and make

money and change the politics of this country, we'll continue to see this move along, but we won't see any traction in terms of changing what the Supreme Court actually looks like to impact our laws in our country. Do they have any shame, Mustafa? I think shame is on short supply. I mean, what are your thoughts? It's hard to find.

You know, I spent some time up there, so if you can find it, you might be able to also find the winning Powerball numbers at the same time. So, you know, I mean, Xavier hit it on the head. You know, we also got to understand the history, right? 1789, there were six justices at that time, one Supreme Court Chief Justice, excuse me, and five associate justices, because sometimes people will say, well, you can't change that. Well, that's not true. I believe it was 1869 they actually did, and they moved it up to nine. So yes, we can. And more than likely, we should, because if we don't, then many of these justices that we see still continue to play out make their way to the

Supreme Court, which is the final decision in many instances. So if we actually want to see social justice and civil rights and a number of the other critical elements that can make our country better, then it has to have a Supreme Court that is actually more representative of our country. And if we're not willing to do that, then we will continue to see this democracy to disintegrate. And by no means do I want that to happen, but I do want a democracy that is actually much more representative of the people who live in this country.

I hear you. And when I really think about how we got here, I just get pissed off all over again. Because, you know, we have a situation where there was a stolen Supreme Court seat from President Obama. And then guess what? The filibuster, you know, the Republicans have no problem using it on their behalf and being able to sneak in another seat on the Supreme Court literally, literally just a couple of months, just really literally weeks before losing the last presidential election. But here we are with the Democrats, for example, wringing their hands about what they should do and shouldn't do with

regarding to protecting voting rights. It's just another example of how the Republicans don't care about anything but raw power. And now we have the Supreme Court that is overly tilted to the right. And I'm telling you, not only is women's reproductive rights hanging by a string right now, once that goes down, it's no telling what's going to go down next. What's your thoughts on that, Xavier? Let's look. We keep focusing on the Supreme Court seat that was stolen. But Mayor Garland, who would have taken that seat, was really a very safe pick by President Obama. If you see what he's doing in the Department of Justice, it's really, what would he have done now? Him on the Supreme Court. Let me just say,

I'm still pissed about that because at that time, I was one of those people screaming at the top of my lungs that we needed a black woman for that pick and not Mr. Mealy mouth, you know, that now sits at the head of the Department of Justice, who also is sort of dragging his feet around there. If you ask me, I honestly let me just make my case, okay? I'll just make my case and then I'll shut up. But I really think that could have changed the entire trajectory of that presidential election because nobody gave a damn about Mayor Gaul. Nobody gave a damn.

I can't even say his name. Nobody gave a damn about him. And so, you know, I know that Obama may have thought it was a safe pick. It was a stupid pick, if you ask me, because it didn't energize anyone. He didn't even get the respect of getting spoken to by the senators. And I tell you, had they played that game with a black woman, do you know that would have pissed sisters off across this country to such an extent

that we may not have ever had had to suffer through a Donald Trump presidency. So I'm still a little annoyed about that. But go ahead. Finish your point. Oh, you got real hot right. I did manage. I'm not even mad at you for that. But there were two safe things that were done that year in terms of Tim Kaine being chosen as a as a running mate for Hillary Clinton. So the Democrats have continued to try to placate people who they will never win. Yes. And as long as Democrats continue to try to massage the egos of people that hate black people, we'll still be back here. Focus the attention on the issues that impact people and how it does. And what we have right now is we have a party that keeps trying to play for people

that they just flat out won't win. Focus on the issues. And we also have a checks and balances system too right now. Because we have a checks and balances system, Congress could come in and say, yes, we do want more seats because you are impacting our jobs and how we're able to govern this country.

And so that's how we have to frame that issue. You are a thousand percent correct. It's like they keep making the same mistake over and over again. It reminds me of the whole Lucy and Charlie Brown football situation. They continue to try to somehow beg and plead these people that they will never get. Like you said, people who hate black people and other folks. OK, you know, they try to do things that they think won't offend them and in trying to offend them, they're not going to appease them anyhow. And at the same time, you are deflating the excitement that you could get

from the people who are your natural allies. If you would just speak to them and present to them choices that would energize them. I mean, what do we need to do to get that through the Democrats' heads, Mustafa? Well, Democrats got to get serious. I always ask the question, are you serious about really wanting to win, or do you just want to show up and say that you were there? Because Republicans, when they come into the space, they're coming in like MMA fighters. You know, they're going to hit you with a kick, and when you're looking down, then they're going to poke you in You know, they're going to hit you with a kick. And when you're looking down, then they're going to poke you in the eyes.

They're going to try and choke you out. And then Democrats, you know, far too many want to be in a yoga mentality. And I'm like, you can't come into the ring like that. You've got to be serious about it. And I'm a person who focuses on collaboration, all those other types of things. But when folks ain't trying to play the game right, then you've got to come out. You've got to get gully with them. As someone

who does yoga, I think we should... I would say it's important to turn that thing upside down. There it is. Let me be careful because there are a lot of folks who practice yoga and I understand the benefits of it. But if I'm in a ring with somebody, you know what?

You better you better be willing to do what's necessary to make sure that the outcome is right. And here's the other thing, is that Republicans have had a strategic plan for decades now about owning the courts. Yep. The Supreme Court, our district courts, courts on the local level, because they understand the power that exists in that space. Absolutely. We've talked about it time and time again on this show. And eventually our folks have to understand if you want change to happen, you've got to own the courts. Absolutely. And as we just alluded to a second ago, lifetime appointments.

I mean, let's just take a minute to let that marinate. This court is going to be impacting the the the rights of my grandchildren and maybe even my great grandchildren. Who knows? Because another thing that the Republicans tend to do better than the Democrats is they tend to appoint younger people to the courts who will be there for a good 30 years plus. Whereas, you know, Democrats don't seem to take age into consideration. Listen, I don't want to, you know, be discriminated against older people. But listen, if you're going to be on the Supreme Court, I want you to be there as long as possible if you're going to vote right. If you're going to vote like a,

you know, idiot, then, you know, it doesn't matter. But it puts, once again, it puts the Democrats at a disadvantage when you look at how the Republicans are strategic and stacking the courts. And as you mentioned, not just the Supreme Court, stacking the courts with young, far right, often completely unqualified individuals. But as long as they will tote the Republican sort of line of thought, they're in like Flynn. Yeah, I mean, as long as you're not qualified, you're going to be able to be swayed, to be able to plug into your grift as opposed to your actual qualifications. And so we've had some of them not be able to serve because of the disqualifications. I mean, Amy Covey Barrett had no reason to be even close to Supreme Court seat. I mean, she would jump, jumped right in the spot and then jump right, fast track right to the Supreme Court. And that's what we're going to, we're going to see her there

for a very, very long time. Someone who shouldn't be there in the first place. And we need to be able to change how we do things. Stop placating to these bigots, man. It's time to focus on the energy of the people that put you in office. Get them excited. Get them focused on issues. Get them mobilized. We should be having to do this job. We started out the show with people are marching on Washington for bills to be passed.

This shouldn't have to be that we're begging our representatives to do their jobs, to be able to do the work for people that are putting them in office. Absolutely. It shouldn't have to be, but unfortunately it is. And then on the other side of the coin, maybe some Supreme Court justices and other justices need to be very strategic about when they retire so that they don't put us in a situation where they're replaced by individuals who their very mission is to undo everything they try to protect their entire career. So here we are. The Department of Justice is opening an investigation into the Mount Vernon Police Department in In New York, after reports of excessive force corruption, systemic racism, and discrimination. For example, in 2019, Officer Ryan Hughes pushed a handcuffed black woman into a cell after her arrest. Please be advised of strong language and disturbing content

in this video. Relax. Calm down. Calm down. Calm down. Good, I got a camera on. All right, let's go. Are you ready? Come on, let's go. Let's go. Come on. I'm not choking you. I'm not choking you.

I'm not choking you. Relax. Relax. You're on it. I'm not on your neck. I'm on your neck. I'm on your neck. I'm on your neck.

I'm on your neck. I'm on your neck. I'm on your neck. I'm on your neck. I'm on your neck. I'm on your neck. I'm on your neck. I'm on your neck. I'm on your neck. You're on it. I'm not on your neck. I'm on your shoulder. Go ahead in here.

Have a seat. Wow. So this is just one of many reports about the violent treatment of black Mount Vernon residents who make up 66 percent of the 74000 person population. My goodness, it's hard to watch that, is it not, Xavier? If Mount Vernon was 66% white and you have black officers roughing up white residents, it would be hell to pay. It's that simple. The fact that the Department of Justice has to come inside of a black town and get the city right over racism is profoundly absurd and it shows the condition of the country that we're living in right now. It sure does. Mustafa, when I saw that final push literally into a sender, look like a sender block wall. I'm thinking, my goodness, did anybody even check on her? I mean, honestly, that could potentially have been a fatal injury or very, very serious injury that she sustained?

Well, yeah. Remember, many of these incidents happen while folks are handcuffed and often when they're handcuffed with their hands behind their back. So she could have very easily had a head injury that if it didn't kill her, you know, it could have caused long-term neurological damage. So, you know, that's why these types of things have to be investigated. There have to be these fines, these shutting downs of these departments that are not willing to do the right thing, because we see it time and time and time again, and that's why you have to have a Department of Justice that is willing to lean in.

Hopefully we can have change happen without that, but we haven't seen it in the past. So we can no longer take a break and say, well, maybe they'll finally start to get it right. And many of these police departments across the country have got it. Absolutely. And as I watch that tape, I'm thinking, you know, some people may see that and say, oh, my goodness, she was mouthing off at the cop the entire time.

But the bottom line is, aren't they supposed to be trained? I mean, not everybody that you're going to arrest is somebody that's just going to be trained to understand that this is their profession to deal with any sort of situation like that where they can maintain their own decorum and not get in their feelings. It seems like to me that he got frustrated. And at that point, he decided, hey, I'm going to shut her up one way or the other. De-escalation, de-escalation, de-escalation. We don't see that given the privilege to African-Americans in their interactions, oftentimes with law enforcement. It is the violence should not be the answer for de-escalation for police. without the bias of the particular officer, which caused so many interactions that mostly start with nonviolent traffic offenders

that maybe that shouldn't even happen in the first place, leading to people being roughed up, being disrespected. I mean, it doesn't matter what she's saying. De-escalation with violence is never going to be the answer. And that's not how other communities are treated, but it's how our people are treated. And it's happening in a town that's 66% Black. It's open season and it needs to end.

It's time for the open season on Black lives to be able to mind their own business, go where they want to go, do what they want to do with their lives. Just leave us alone, please. Absolutely. So still to come, our Marketplace segment brought to you by Verizon. The pandemic shut down his nightclub, so he had to switch up his business plan. When Roland Martin Unfiltered returns, we'll talk to the owner of District Market Green Grocer, Houston's first black-owned grocery store. But first, a quick break.

You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back. Oh, that spin class was brutal. Well, you can try using the PX massaging seat. Oh, yeah, that's nice. Can I use Apple CarPlay to put some music on? Sure. It's wireless.

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you know how some carriers give you so little for your old or busted phone you just end up living with it? I don't think so. Verizon lets you trade in your broken phone for a shiny new one. You break it, we upgrade it. You dunk it, doggy bone it, slam it, wham it, strawberry jam it, we upgrade it. Get a 5G phone on us with select plans. Every customer, current, new, or business. Because everyone deserves better. And with plans starting at just $35, better costs less than you The pandemic caused many businesses to shut down. One Houston entrepreneur had to find a different way to survive.

So when his club closed, he opened a grocery store. District Market Green Grocer is the first black-owned grocery store in Houston, Texas. Joining us now is the owner, Robert Thomas. How you doing there, Robert? Hello, everyone. How you doing? Oh, good. It's so great to see you. And I love, love, love this story because you to me are showing the world really what an entrepreneur looks like, right? When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Let us know, you know, what happened when the pandemic hit and you knew you had to shut down your club.

What was the first thought that came through your mind? Of course, panic settled in for me. And I didn't hear confusion. I didn't have no sense of direction. I had no source of income. And then they told me I was not essential. So, I mean, I didn't have no sense of direction. I had no source of income. And then they told me I was not essential.

So, I mean, I wasn't even important anymore. So I was devastated. I didn't know what to do. Well, what's powerful to me about you is that you didn't let that stop you. And this is such a beautiful story to me because, once again, this is the beauty of entrepreneurship. You got, in essence, shut down your way of living. The beautiful thing about entrepreneurship here, you know, you don't get no direct deposit, right? You only eat what you kill. And if somebody comes and say you have to shut down your store,

then as you mentioned, you or your club in this instance, you had no way of bringing in revenue. And so I guess what you did was maybe did you survey the land and said, well, what business can I get in now that is essential? No. It didn't even come to me as a business idea at first. The way it started was of course it was so hard to get into

stores, grocery stores and supermarkets. So I had to go to farmer markets and pop-up shops and from there i noticed um uh that i run i started running into some good products and of course these pop-up shops have black vendors and i'm seeing their farming products they're different things that they make by hand and i'm wondering to, why aren't any of these products in any of the major grocery stores?

And that was the beginning of this place here, once I noticed that we don't have anything on the shelves. Mm. Wow. Nothing on the shelves. So that means that we're not part of the everyday American dollar that's being spent on a day-to-day or minute-to-minute,

second-to-second basis. Everyone needs groceries. Everyone. Absolutely. Everybody does need groceries. And I remember at the beginning of the pandemic, people were going into the grocery stores and spending like drunken sailors. I mean, they were getting everything. Remember, they were getting everything they could get their hands on. But what I love about your idea here is that you tapped into a problem that is the case in the traditional grocery stores. I wish I could remember the statistic, but I have a friend of mine who is a chef and he talks about how like a very, very minute percentage of all of those thousands of products that we see in grocery stores is even owned by black business people. You know, they're not coming from black businesses. You saw an opportunity there for black owned companies that were producing great stuff to get shelf space. And you said, Hey, I can create a store that, that does that for them.

That was really a revolutionary thought. Yes, that's exactly what I had in mind. So at this moment, at this very time, I'm actually in my grocery store. So everything in here is from a black vendor. So we have customers. If they buy, I have a new vendor that came in today. His brother Muhammad, he serves, he makes loaves of bread. He's a Muslim. He makes from the nation of Islam. he makes bread, loaves of bread. I have a vendor that gives me eggs. It's awesome. It's coming together. Fruits, vegetables. I have

a juice bar. I'm looking to get a black vendor and he does toilet paper and paper towels. Black vendor I'm going to be working with. He makes his own light bulbs. Light bulbs.

Wow. Yes. Now, here's the, I'll call it, it's definitely a blessing for me. Yeah. From doing these type of interviews. I've been on the news here at Fox, KHU 11. I was in the Houston Business Journal. I talked to a retired congressman,

not a congressman, city councilman here in Houston, Texas. He retired and put me on his radio show. So from this, it's bringing me resources and one of the best resources I connected with is this man. He's in the islands and

he's connected with the agricultural program that they have going through the Caribbean islands. So what they're looking for is a representative in the United States where we can get some of our brothers and sisters that farm abroad to get us good, natural, organic food over here. Mm-hmm. So I'm going to have a program with him where he's going to send me 40-foot-long containers of fruit and vegetables for me to become a major distributor in Texas. So I'm excited about that. Like, it'll be as far as your eye can see,

I'll have produce. Oh, my goodness. I love it. I love it because not only are you helping these black businesses that would not be given the time of day in the sort of quote unquote traditional grocery stores, you're also helping the community because we know how difficult it is in terms of the problem of food deserts that we tend to face in black communities. Here you are with healthy foods that you are giving people in the form of fruits and vegetables

and your juice bar and all that. You're making it available where people can easily get it. So it sounds like it's a win-win for everybody. That's my agenda. Create a system where we all can win. I want to reach out to the poverty stricken areas that if you go into these supermarkets in certain areas, you can see that the food is not the same where you go to more privileged areas.

True. We need, they need good food too. They need good food. They need good food, too. They need good food. They need good products. They need good produce coming through there. I'm a green grocer. So by definition, I specialize in produce. So I'm looking forward to making it affordable for the poverty-stricken areas

to have good, healthy food and their diets. Oh, my goodness. I'm loving this. I have got to bring Mustafa into this conversation because he looks like he's like smiling from ear to ear. Mustafa, do you have any questions? Yeah, Brother Thomas, thank you so much. I work on food justice issue with along with a number of climate justice and environmental justice issues. And, you know, I've worked in about a thousand communities now across our country and outside. And one of the things that you always notice is the lack of fresh and affordable, healthy food in our community. So my question is, over the next 12 to 24 months, what's your vision for growing this out? And where do you plan on landing? Is it other places in Houston? Is it beyond that? What's the

vision? Right now, to be honest with you, my vision now is to formulate a team. I need a team. I need investors. I need people to share this and do this with me. I'm by myself. Everything I've done so far, I've done it all alone, maybe help from family members and everything. But only because it was just an idea. I had no idea that it would reach where I'm getting all this attention, and I'm going to make use of it. So I need to put a team together. I need a simple, a nice, strong, powerful team, and I would like to attack the country. I don't mean to use the word attack,

but the problem that we're having, I want to attack it. So I'm talking about, like, H-E-B here. H-E-B is a popular um supermarket here they have over 300 stores i want more than 300 i want as many stores i can open and all in the right areas where it's needed that's that's my goal and not only that i'm very competitive i want district market to be mentioned along the giants you know i just i just would like to see that for us, and I'm taking the black vendors with me. Mm, beautiful. I'm loving it.

Xavier, any questions from you? Sure. As a vegan chef, I appreciate Brother Thomas bringing healthy, fresh fruit and vegetables in the community that needs them. And how do you propose educating the community on why your services are important and how you are creating the pipelines

specifically for black-owned distributors? You talked about having soy candles and creating that avenue, maybe even small business programs so that they could not just put products on your shelf but can thrive as you grow and build as you grow and then how do you get basically attach yourself to black wealth so they are supporting you as you build and grow and you scale your business okay whoa that's a

good question and okay um let me see if i can answer it in parts, if that's okay. The first question was, I believe, is about education. I'm an advocate. As you can see right here, I have my juice of green vegetables here. And I'm an advocate for greens. Greens. Green. Green vegetables must exist in our diets and the way i've been educating them as they come here actually i i do that i'll take the time um you know if i can just reach one is what i figured

um as far as how a diet should be so think about the average person when they walk in the supermarket or make up their mind and say, I want to eat healthy now. They make up their own version of it. Now I'm just going to start eating vegetables. So a lot of things I need to educate people on is that food is medicine. That's where they're getting the medicine from.

It's from the things that come out of the ground. So you can eat things, combine certain things you eat, and it can heal you or make you feel better. They don't like for you to use the word heal, but it can make you feel better. Food can make you feel good, and it can help you with some of your medical conditions. So the number one cause of some of the problems I see that plagues the black community is digestion problems. So what I do here is everyone that wants it, if I have to give it to them for free, I will. I want to put greens in my brothers and sisters' bodies to help them be able to have good functioning bodies that can absorb good nutrients.

You cannot do that if you have bad digestion. So that's my angle of educating. How I'm helping streamline some businesses through my building, through what I'm doing is I just serve as a platform. My business model is designed strictly for the micro business. So some of these vendors I have here, they literally are just making products at home. And I have some vendors that are making very good money

here as a start. Some of them never been in the store before and their products are in here. That is a major help for them. They're getting exposure. I'm gonna to by me not having to buy product it loses up my finances that aggressively market and advertise and I know that's what a lot of the black vendors need to have good products but they spend money

to get these products but they don't have the money to get the problem and then turn around and create a major campaign market at the top so that's the I'm going to come. have the money to get the product and then turn around and create a major campaign to market and advertise so that's the point i'm going to cover my job is to make my platform district market the biggest platform for black vendors or any vendor that cannot get their product on the show well i have to i'm sorry you can finish your thought. No, I was hoping I was answering the brother's question. Yeah, that was great. You absolutely did.

And I have to say, if anybody can make that vision real, I have a feeling it's you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much for joining us this evening. Is there any way that people can find out more about you and maybe patronize you? Can you let people know how they can get in touch with you? Yes. Right now, the best way to reach me is through District Market Green Grocer on Instagram and Facebook.

You can message me. My team are very responsive. And my email. My email is the same name, districtmarketgreengrocer at gmail.com. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Thank you. Absolutely.

We're almost done. When we come back, we have a special birthday shout-out. But first, we have to take a quick break. Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back. Stay with us. ТРЕВОЕННАЯ МУЗЫКА I'm Chrisette Michelle. Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. The Los Angeles Lakers organization is making history.

Keisha Nix becomes the first black woman vice president in the organization. She will lead the charitable affairs department. She previously served as executive director of the Lakers Youth Foundation. Wow, here we go making history, guys. What do you think? We have a sister up there in the L.A. Lakers. Mustafa, do you think this is going to be just the first one breaking down the doors? I sure hope so.

You know, it's been a long time coming. Should have happened a long time ago, but I'm glad this sister has been able to break through that glass ceiling. And I hope that the next move is for presidencies and ownerships of these teams. And the Lakers have been on the cutting edge on some issues. So kudos to them for, you know, acknowledging and giving this sister the platform to be able to show the amazing things that she and other sisters will be able to do. Absolutely. Absolutely. And we want to wish a very special happy birthday to Brigadier General Charles McGee. McGee is the oldest living Tuskegee Airmen pilot, and he turned, get this, 102 years old today. McGee flew for over two decades and had many accolades for his service.

He flew in over 400 combat missions in more than 30 different types of aircraft. In case you didn't know, the Tuskegee Airmen were a group of primarily African-American military pilots and airmen who fought in World War II and who formed the 332nd Expeditionary Operations Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Force. Isn't that powerful, Xavier, to see this amazing American hero reach that milestone of 102? Last time he was alive, when he first came to Earth, there was a pandemic we had before. I mean, that's how long he's been here. He's seen so many different things happen in our country. God bless him.

Happy birthday, my brother. We are very, very proud of you. You're a living legacy and a testament to the will of our people when we are faced with extraordinary circumstances. To get to 102 is an absolute blessing. And we're so happy to have him here being a beacon of our community absolutely well i couldn't have said it better myself now before we go we want to take a moment to remember pearl harbor it's it's been eight decades since the attack on Pearl Harbor, the date that changed the course of a nation and led the United States into World War II.

2,403 people died and 1,178 were injured when USS Shaw exploded after being hit by Japanese bombs on December 7th, 1941. Today, we remember those who died that day. The first Pearl Harbor Day was held in 1994 after Congress designated December 7th as Pearl Harbor National Remembrance Day. Well, that's it for us tonight. I want to thank my amazing panel, Mustafa Santiago, and Ali and Xavier Pope for joining us. And thank you for joining us here on Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming on the Black Star Network. If you haven't done it yet, download the Black Star Network on all of your devices. Right. And if you want to support us, please do. OK, as we can continue to bring you stories that matter.

So support us on Cash App at Cash App slash RM Unfiltered. Support us on PayPal at PayPal.me, RMartinUnfiltered. Support us on Venmo and Zelle at Venmo.com, RMUnfiltered, and Roland at RolandSMartin.com. I'm Dr. Avis. Ray Baker will be your host tomorrow, but I'll be back to see you on Monday. Have a great evening and don't forget to holla. this is an iHeart podcast